kaisersoze Posted January 2, 2012 Posted January 2, 2012 I power my ISY, router, and modem with an UPS. I am also interested in getting a notification if the power goes out. Any updates on detecting a power outage? Perhaps a program to detect if 2 (or 3) Insteon devices on different circuits are all unreachable, send notification of likely power outage.
Michel Kohanim Posted January 2, 2012 Author Posted January 2, 2012 Hello kaisersoze, You can currently do this by having a program that is only run at Start up. With kind regards, Michel
kaisersoze Posted January 3, 2012 Posted January 3, 2012 Hello kaisersoze, You can currently do this by having a program that is only run at Start up. With kind regards, Michel A startup program runs when the isy powers back on, right? Wouldn't a notification at startup will only occur when the power returns to the ISY? It won't notify me when the power goes down and wont run if the ISY stays powered via UPS throughout the black out. Maybe I'm missing something here.
Morris Hansen Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 I am also looking for a way to detect loss of power for a remote building. I would have the ISY and other networking equipment on a UPS so I would have the ability to send emails and/or access the ISY. What is the simplest way for the ISY to detect the loss of power? It would be great if the ISY could detect loss of communication with the PLM and be able to send a notification. In this setup, the ISY would be on a UPS and the PLM would not be. I know the ISY shows safe mode when accessing the admin interface without being connected to the PLM. Being able to detect this in real time would solve this problem fairly easily. Any other forms of detecting loss of power with a contact closure connected to a IO Linc gets ugly because the ISY and PLM and IO Linc would have to be powered by the UPS during this power outage. The main concern for me is not that there was a brief power outage and what happens to programs, etc when power is restored. It is around the lost of power causes the loss of heat which could lead to frozen water pipes and property damage. Would be interested in what others have done.
Michel Kohanim Posted February 9, 2012 Author Posted February 9, 2012 Hi kaisersoze, I am so very sorry ... I must have missed your post. mohansen/kaisersoze, unfortunately it would be quite difficult for ISY to sense power loss without a battery backup and an extra switching power supply to switch to battery during power loss. One ugly solution might be the support for pinging a network device (something that's always on such as your router) and if that does not respond then assume power loss. But, this is ugly too since one has to make sure not to issue too many pings and all sorts of other side effects such as router is not responding but you still have power. With kind regards, Michel
Morris Hansen Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 Not sure I understand needing an another power supply. Pinging the router may indicate loss of power but then the router would be down and the ISY would not have network connectivity for notifications. Would it not be possible to use the existing power supply on the ISY and plug it into a ups that would have the battery backup? Plug the router and cable modem or dsl modem into the ups as well. Plug the PLM into a non-ups outlet. With loss of power, the PLM would go down along with all other Insteon devices. The ISY and other network equipment would still be powered via the ups. The ISY would lose communication with the PLM and would just need the ability to send a notification based on this loss of communication. I would think there could be a Condition available in the "If" section in a program. Something like "PLM Communication Status is: Established or Lost" All other logic is already available to do notifications. Make any sense or am I missing something?
LeeG Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 The network devices can be on a UPS. I keep my PC and DSL modem on a UPS without interruption from power outage so long as the DSL switch down the road does not lose power as well. This part works well. The problem with the PLM is I don't think the ISY knows it went down. Being on a Serial port connection nothing is aware of the other end going down. I support the SHN Utility which can communicate with a PLM over a Serial port connection. If I unplug the PLM the Utility is not aware the PLM is no longer available.
Morris Hansen Posted February 10, 2012 Posted February 10, 2012 Thanks for the information. When the ISY boots up, it seems to know whether there is a PLM attached which is probably due to some communication the ISY does when first booted. Maybe if the ISY did some sort of hello message/poll to the ISY once a minute, the ISY would be able to determine communication status.
Michel Kohanim Posted February 12, 2012 Author Posted February 12, 2012 mohansen, ISY does an ID request at boot up. Doing this every minute may cause undesired behavior. With kind regards, Michel
tex Posted March 9, 2012 Posted March 9, 2012 I have the same question but different environment. Some of my ISY 99i and insteon devices are on a UPS and some are not. What can I add or sense on those insteon devices not on UPS that would allow the ISY to send a notify message when the power goes down?
LeeG Posted March 9, 2012 Posted March 9, 2012 Running Insteon devices with a UPS may cause communications problems with those devices. One technique for determining if power is On would be to use an I/O Linc. The I/O Linc Relay NO contact would turn On the I/O Linc Sensor. Send a command to turn on the I/O Linc Relay, wait a few seconds and check the Status of the I/O Linc Sensor. If the Sensor is not On then one could assume the I/O Linc does not have power. Could do the same thing with most any Insteon device that turns On and Off. Turn the device On, wait a few seconds and Query the Status. If not On then assume the device does not have power.
tex Posted March 11, 2012 Posted March 11, 2012 I simplified by saying UPS. It is actually a solar panel inverter with battery backup. I was looking for a device to put on the UPS side that sensed an outage on the grid side. I prefer an event triggered at time of outage rather than the polling technique you recommend. thanks
LeeG Posted March 11, 2012 Posted March 11, 2012 Power a 120V AC relay from the grid. When grid power drops the relay will close the NC/Com contacts which can turn an I/O Linc Sensor On which triggers an ISY Program.
TJF1960 Posted March 11, 2012 Posted March 11, 2012 Power a 120V AC relay from the grid. When grid power drops the relay will close the NC/Com contacts which can turn an I/O Linc Sensor On which triggers an ISY Program. LeeG, how about an inlinelinc relay with sense or a SL relay with sense? Wire the inlinelinc to the solar/battery side and the sense wire to the non ups side. Power goes out the inlinelinc turns off, power comes back on inlinelinc turns on. I don't know if the sense wire is isolated.....in other words if the inlinelinc is on L1 and the sense gets connected to L2 will it smoke the switch?
LeeG Posted March 11, 2012 Posted March 11, 2012 I don't know the internals of an InLineLinc but that would be my concern. Powering the InLineLinc from the battery side and the sense line from the grid. I'd be inclined to keep the sides isolated with the same 120V relay approach. The relay coil is powered from grid with the relay contacts switching the sense line from 120V to Gnd on the battery side. It may not be an issue with a solar system particularly if the solar system is sending excess capacity back to the power grid.
SunSentry Posted March 11, 2012 Posted March 11, 2012 I see that this is an old posting, but had you thought about putting a one minute delay into the isy firmware to not attempt getting an IP address from the router? That should be an adequate amount of time to allow the router to boot up and start providing DHCP. I know several other types of devices work that way.
Michel Kohanim Posted March 12, 2012 Author Posted March 12, 2012 Hi SunSentry, This has already been addressed in our official releases (2.8.16 and above). With kind regards, Michel
freddiaz87 Posted June 9, 2012 Posted June 9, 2012 Has anyone else implemented a power-out script? I have a power-on script that sends me an email with the new IP address since the modem will DHCP a new address when it disconnects (cheaper than paying for a fixed IP). I will implement an email warning based on the Trane temp going to 0 but was looking for a more standard way of doing it? ohjelma
SunSentry Posted June 9, 2012 Posted June 9, 2012 Has anyone else implemented a power-out script? I have a power-on script that sends me an email with the new IP address since the modem will DHCP a new address when it disconnects (cheaper than paying for a fixed IP). I will implement an email warning based on the Trane temp going to 0 but was looking for a more standard way of doing it? ohjelma No need to buy a fixed IP anyway. I use http://dyn.com/dns/ and the free service. Then I always have a fixed URL to use (not an IP addr). If you don't want to pay the $20 a year for an account, then the free account will simply send you an email once per month to validate you are still active. I click the link and that works for anohter month. There are lots of such services out there for free.
BitSmith Posted July 2, 2013 Posted July 2, 2013 I've customized what can be done after a power restore; http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=Power_Failure Also a few other hopefully helpful routines; http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=User:BitSmith Cheers, BitSmith
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